Anyone here into movie soundtracks? I never paid much attention to them before, writing off the genre as kind of "pop classical," but I picked up some used CDs last week and am surprised to find that a lot of this stuff is really enjoyable.

These are the titles I got - just some composers whose names I was familiar with:

I haven't listened to all of it yet, but so far I am definitely more into Zimmer and Goldsmith than Horner (meh). The Last Samurai especially has some really nice parts in it. I also have to say a lot of it sounds better on full (loud ) speakers than headphones, but when you can't go loud, headphones still sound good. It's just not always so expansive and "big," but what you lose there you gain in more immediacy during more quiet parts.

What other composers or soundtracks are worth checking out? John Williams comes obviously to mind, but are there any more obscure ones to be on the lookout for?

Not really obscure but The Lord Of The Rings soundtrack is amazing. And if you want something more electronic The Matrix is pretty good. I perhaps prefer The Matrix Reloaded over all, but Tetsujin from The Matrix Revolutions is my favourite single song of the lot.

[edit]Also, Clint Mansell might be worth checking out. I've not heard a lot of his work in detail, but what I have has been pretty good.

If you like country music, hunt down a copy of the soundtrack to "Traveler." it's a slightly obscure and excellent movie that came out several years ago. Bill Paxton produced the soundtrack and he got a bunch of contemporary country singers to record old classics. It turned out especially well - I still spin the disc regularly. Classic songs, great performances and modern recording.

We really lucked out with the combination of Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard on the Gladiator soundtrack. I'm not sure you could really come up with a better duo.

I really love the score for The Last of the Mohicans (1992), which up until right now I had mistakenly attributed to Danny Elfman, but apparently he had nothing to do with that score. Hmm..

Not orchestral, but I really thought the sountrack for the German movie Lola, Rennt (Run Lola, Run) was fantastic.

Duggeh, just curious have you heard the soundtrack for the first GITS? I thought it was far superior to the soundtrack from the sequel.

And not even a movie, but the soundtrack for the video game Silent Hill 3 is amazing as well. I actually grabbed the PC version of the game from the bargain bin for $4.99 just to get the soundtrack. Never really cared for the Silent Hill games, but they have really good soundtracks. If you liked the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack, you should check it out.

Someone mentioned Clint Mansell, I have found this guy to be an amazing composer. Very emotional stuff .....he can be very melodic, but also creates some pretty thick ambient soundscapes. Some highlights of his that I can highly recommend are Requiem for a Dream,The Fountain, Smokin' Aces, Moon and Definitely,Maybe